Spiritual Gifts Part 9 "Helps and Governments"
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And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
Introduction
Introduction
Jonah Malachi
Paul lists two gifts here that are not mentioned in verses 8-10, “helps” and “governments”.
(Tongues and Interpretation next week)
I think most people in a local church identify with one of these gifts.
Paul’s idea of the church is very different from many modern churches. The church is not a business, it’s a body.
(1000 units story)
Example: Cutting a cancer out of a person’s body is much more delicate than firing someone from their job. Whenever you remove a part from the body that part dies, and the body is affected in some way. Even a cancer leaves scar tissue.
Lets start with verse 12:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
One, but different.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
He talks about the different parts.
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
He made the eye an eye, he made the ear an ear.
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
You say, “Brother Branham, I’m the least in the church. I’m just a little bitty fellow.” But, remember, when He ascended on High, see, you are raised with Him. You’re in the Body.
And you’re with Christ right now, seated in Heavenly places. If you’re the skin on the bottom of the feet, every devil is underneath you. 62-0118 - Convinced Then Concerned
For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Your gift is just your place in the body. If you have an eye gift, He’s not going to place you on the bottom of the foot. Keep that in mind as we go along.
Helps
Helps
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 12
The Greek word used here, antilēmpsis, refers to assisting people in need (see Acts 20:35), but it also entails the idea of calling upon God in a time of turmoil so that He may act in the situation with His full power and force.
The idea is someone who assists, jumps in and helps with whatever needs done, especially someone who prays.
Remember, your prayers for me, that means you’re my colleague. You’re my buddy, my helper. And, together, we are helpers in the Lord. 62-0601 - Taking Sides With Jesus
Aaron and Hur had the gift of helps when they held up Moses hands during the battle.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
They just did what needed to be done.
For every one soldier that saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, there were 8 soldiers behind the scenes, holding their hands up.
Speaking of Bro. Neville:
And he certainly goes under a lot of labor and strains, and things. And you, you people here, hold him up like Joshua and Caleb held up the hands of Moses, as he’s bringing the Word. 63-0728 — Christ Is The Mystery Of God Revealed
Saying Amen is helping.
I was preaching here not long ago, and there’s a little woman just screaming and shouting top of her voice, and there was a man that’s a Sunday school teacher in a Baptist church in Jeffersonville, said, “Billy, I was enjoying your service till that woman got to screaming and crying.” He said, “How in the world can you preach when people are hollering like that?”
I said, “I can’t preach ’less they do holler like that.” I don’t know where I’m standing. Don’t know how they’re receiving it.
I used to have an old dog, I used to hunt with, we called him Fritz. He would take anything, tree anything in the world but a skunk. He just…He wouldn’t go into him. He’d tree him in a brush pile, and then he’d keep going around the brush pile barking.
And the only thing I had to do to get him to go in and get that skunk was just to raise up the brush pile and pat him say, “Sic him, boy. Sic him, boy.” He’d go in and get the skunk.
Now, brother, every time I hear a “amen” it’s “Sic him, boy.” And the biggest skunk I know of is the devil. Let’s get him up a bush right now, and go get him. Hallelujah. That’s right. Yes, indeed. “Sic him, boy.” 53-0907A — Lord, Show Us The Father And It Sufficeth Us
Sometimes just helping someone in the prayer line could cause you to be healed.
Man was helping someone who didn’t speak English.
That man that was trying to help that other man there, sir, you did God a favor. You helped. You was trying…Yes, trying to tell you…You don’t have to come; stand right there.
You speak English. You have a prayer card? You don’t have it. All right, if you’ll believe with all your heart, that hernia will leave you. You can go home and be well. 61-0205E — Jesus Christ The Same Yesterday, Today, And Forever
We are brothers fighting a battle. "Come back with your shield - or on it" (Spartan saying)
Governments
Governments
A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament κυβέρνησις
κυβέρνησις (lit. steering, piloting), governing, government
Administration
This would be Deacons, Trustees, Worship Leaders, Musicians, Sunday School teachers and Superintendent, Audio and Video workers, Janitors, and anyone in charge or appointed to lead in any way.
We don’t have time to go through each and every duty of each office, but I want to address this question:
How do I know what office I should be in?
Paul said “Covet the best gifts”. The best gifts are those most beneficial to the church,
1. What needs to be done?
1. What needs to be done?
Are people not getting seated? Maybe the church needs an usher. Does the carpet need cleaned? Maybe the church needs a janitor. Are there a bunch of kids running around? Maybe the church needs Sunday School teachers.
I used to be, when I was here, I was the pastor, I was the song leader, I took up the offerings, I paid the debts, I was the janitor, and I was the carpenter, and I just cleaned the ashes out of the stove, and done whatever come along to be done. Then worked at the Public Service Company on the side. Seventeen years of that, I was here. 53-0325 — Israel And The Church #1
When I pastored here, I had to be pastor, deacon, trustee, everything else at once, see, but I had to do it. Now you don’t have to do it that way, see, because you got men to carry this out. 63-1226 - Church Order
2. What can you do?
2. What can you do?
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
As a church grows it becomes “what can I do well”. We all tend to either over or under estimate our own abilities. If you’re an edge piece in a puzzle don’t try to force yourself into the middle of the picture.
The little brother here, the song leader, Brother Cauble, many others here, God has give you talent. Maybe you say, “Well, Brother Branham, He hasn’t give me nothing.” You don’t know, maybe. See? You may just go try something. Maybe you’ve never went out and testified to somebody. Try that.
Everybody can’t do that. Maybe you can’t—something else that you could do. There’s something you can do that you can put it to God. But now, the thing you have to do, is do what the brother sing in his song: yield.
The man who could whistle and impersonate all the birds that I ever heard, well then, that man yielded himself to it—give in to it.
The man who could sing, he yielded himself; he give in to it. Now, for these things here, of the Gospel and the manifestation of visions, I just yield myself and give in to it, and that’s what does it. See? It’s not me; it’s Him. And it’s something that you can’t help. The man can’t help because he was borned to whistle like birds.
He was born that way. The man that sang, was the same way. And to see visions is just as common to me as it is to them to do that. You see what I mean now? It all together, it’s for one edification of the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 54-0404M — Earnestly Contending For The Faith
Bro. Branham is asked this question:
How does one know their rightful position in the Body of Christ?
That’s a good one, very good, That’d be the kind of question amongst many of us here tonight, “How do you rightfully know?” Now, I’m presuming that this brother wants to know “What position, what in Christ, what part of Christ do I play?”
Now, for instance, I’d say like this, brother, to give you the best answer I know. Your position in Christ is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. And then if you want to know whether it’s the Holy Spirit or not, find out whether He blesses what you’re doing, or not. And if He blesses it, then that’s Him.
Like someone said to me not long ago, said, “The Lord called me to preach.” I said, “Well, then preach.” I really think it’s so…Satan, if he can just get somebody to act like that and then deceive them, that’s just what he wants to do. Then the whole world points their finger right there.
I said, “Well, then preach.” See? And so he—he…
51 I really think it’s so…Satan, if he can just get somebody to—to act like that and then deceive them, that’s just what he wants to do. Then the whole world points their finger right there. Somebody thinks they have a gift of speaking in tongues and interpretation; some has the gift of Divine healing; some has these things like…Sometimes they’re mistaken in those things, see. And sometimes they think they haven’t got it when they have. So it’s very tricky.
Somebody thinks they have a gift of speaking in tongues and interpretation; some has the gift of Divine healing; some has these things like…Sometimes they’re mistaken in those things, see. And sometimes they think they haven’t got it when they have. So it’s very tricky.
So always do this, brethren, whenever you feel that you’re supposed to do a thing, first find out if it’s Scriptural for you to do it (if it’s in the Scriptures).
Not just wrote in one place, but I mean completely Scriptural through the Bible for you to do it, your position, say if you’d be an evangelist, pastor, teacher, prophet, whatever that God might have called you to be. You see?
Or if you have the gift of tongues, gift of interpretation, gift of any kind of the nine spiritual gifts in the church, and the four spiritual offices of the church, any position, first see if God called.
Then, usually, way I watch it for myself, just…this is me, I watch the nature of the person and see what kind of a gift that they’re professing. See, God will work with His creature the way He’s made him. See? He’ll make a creature…
If you see him real flighty and going on, you…and he says, “The Lord called me for such-and-such, to be a pastor.” Now, a pastor can’t be a flighty person. A pastor’s solid, sound. See?
“God called me to be a teacher.” And watch him how he interprets the Word. See? He gets It all mixed up and everything, then you can tell. See?
But, then, the thing to do, your position is usually known whether you can do it or not.
(Story of building the Tabernacle)
And my calling was an evangelist. The morning…Laying right here at this cornerstone, if we could burst in there tonight, you’ll see a flyleaf off of my Bible where He told me to be an evangelist. See?
And I wasn’t a successful pastor, never would be, because I haven’t got the patience and what it takes to be a pastor. See? So therefore if I tried to pastor, I would just be as far out as a pastor is trying to be an evangelist.
See what I mean? You can see the way the Lord calls you, what your position is in the Body. 61-0112 - Questions And Answers
61-0112 — Questions And Answers
3. What is your Motive?
3. What is your Motive?
Are you selfish in your motive, or is it for the good of the body? Why do you want to do it?
“Door of Selfishness”
And sometimes that gets into preachers. And you know, they say, “Sure, I’ll be a minister, if everybody pat me on the back, and say, ‘You’re a good fellow.’”
If everybody patted me on the back, and said I was a good fellow, I’d get to the altar just, quick as I could. Hmm. I know there’d be something wrong, ’cause the Bible said, “Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you!” See. The world knows its own; the world will hate you. But God will love you. 58-0521 - Behold, I Stand At The Door And Knock
4. What is your Objective?
4. What is your Objective?
What do you want to achieve? Is it personal or for the body?
You might achieved to say, “I won’t stop till I become a preacher. I won’t stop till I become a deacon. I won’t stop till I become a church member.” Them things are all right, honorable. But, listen here, brother, don’t you stop short of Jesus Christ, or you haven’t got an Eternal achievement.
Because, your pastor, yeah, your work of a pastor, will soon fade away. Your work as a deacon will soon go. Your church membership will be long dismissed from the minds of the people, just a little while to come. But if you’ve achieved Jesus Christ, then you’ve got Eternal Life, and you can never die. 60-0604 - To Whom Shall We Go?
If He called you to do a thing, like a man said, “Well, I believe I can make more money if I was a preacher.” You’ll never make a preacher. God has to call you to be a preacher. How can a preacher preach ’less the Lord has sent him. Is that right?
It’s all in God. Everything moves right back into God. Is that right? Everything right back to Him, He sets the program. We just fall in line (You see?), and carry it out. 53-0216 - My Angel Shall Go Before Thee
5. How do you represent the Body of Christ to the world?
5. How do you represent the Body of Christ to the world?
Is your life worthy of the Gospel? If not, seek a closer walk with God so He can use you.
We want to be in service for the King.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
The little things matter.
For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
If they will be rewarded, what about you, who have served God’s people unselfishly for years? Great is your reward.
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
Friends, the whole world is dying for love. That’s one of the great things that we leave out of our Pentecostal blessing too much of it, is love that mixes it together, the mortar that makes gifts and all the things of God operate perfectly is love one for the other. 60-1127M — It Wasn't So From The Beginning